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The segmental and tonal structure of verb inflection in Babanki

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Pius W. Akumbu,
Larry M. Hyman and
Roland Kießling
Pius W. Akumbu*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Buea, P.O Box 63, Buea, Cameroon
Larry M. Hyman*
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, 1203 Dwinelle, MC 2650, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2650
Roland Kießling*
Affiliation:
Department of Asia-Africa Studies, Universität Hamburg, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
*
akumbu.pius@ubuea.cm
hyman@berkeley.edu
roland.kiessling@uni-hamburg.de
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Abstract

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In this study we provide a comprehensive phonological and morphological overview of the complex tense-aspect-mood (TAM) system of Babanki, a Grassfields Bantu language of Cameroon. Our emphasis is on the competing inflectional tonal melodies that are assigned to the verb stem. These melodies are determined not only by the multiple past and future tenses, perfective vs. progressive aspect, and indicative vs. imperative, subjunctive, and conditional moods, but also affirmative vs. negative and “conjoint” (CJ) vs. “disjoint” (DJ) verbal marking, which we show to be more thoroughgoing than the better known cases in Eastern and Southern Bantu. The paper concludes with a ranking of the six assigned tonal melodies and fourteen appendices providing all of the relevant tonal paradigms.

Keywords

tonal melodiesgrammatical toneverb inflectiontonal paradigmsconjointdisjoint

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Phonological Data and Analysis , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , 2020, pp. 1 - 33
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
Published by the Linguistic Society of America with permission of the authors under a CC BY 3.0 license.
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 Pius W. Akumbu, Larry M. Hyman & Roland Kießling.

Footnotes

*

The first author acknowledges the Fulbright Scholar Program for a Fulbright African Research Scholar Grant to the University of California Berkeley (2015-2016) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for a Georg Forster Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers (2019-2020) which have allowed for greater progress and the present collaboration. Special thanks to two other Kejom Ketinguh speakers: Regina Phubong and Vivian Ba-ah who contributed some of the data, and to Gene Buckley and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the original submission.

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